A teacher has to have knowledge of the material, but knowledge alone isn’t enough.
Creativity and humility is what sums up the expertise of a good teacher. Once a kid with wild imagination, now an adult with philosophical inclination, 28-year-old musical theater performer Reb Atadero knows that teaching theater arts has to be an act of love—and not just an act.
With his love for theater arts and the love to teach, Reb spoke of tapping each innate creativity of the students by weaving these two together creatively. Different strokes for different folks. Indeed, teaching theater arts is one touch act.
Reb visits Cebu every summer to hold musical theater workshops, and one fine day, the Play! pool got to have a chat with the off-duty teacher.
He is a young John Keating who could step out of the conventional teaching method, push you to question an intriguing art over a hundred well-made clichés, and wake the thespian in you with an arterial bleed of all feels.
Reb has performed for the Repertory Philippines (“The Graduate”), Trumpets (“The Boy and his Horse”), Nineworks Theaterical (The Grease), and Resorts World Manila (Annie). Also a cast of “The Boston-The Kitchen Musical” television series season two, this year’s nominee for Best Actor in “Almost, Maine,” and a certified video gamer, Reb Atadero just couldn’t be summed up to one persona sitting next to him, picking his brain.
He could be the whimsical friend in a minute, a deep-thinker life coach the next.
How did you get into liking and eventually doing theater arts?
Hi! My name is Reb Atadero and I’m going to tell you how I got into theater. (Laughs).
I love it.
It’s funny how liking it and doing it have two separate stories.
It was in 2006—11 years ago now from the date of this interview—and I was literally pushed into this booth back when I was in Ateneo.
It was recruitment week for all the organizations in school and I was pushed by my friend in front of this booth.
They’d go, “I dare you to sign up!” And I said, sure, not knowing what I was going to sign up for. It turned out to be this organization called Ateneo Blue Repertory. They do musical theater.
I ended up liking the craft when I first got up on stage. That’s when I realized that, hey, this is fun! I was 17. That was literally my first experience to musical theater in general.
Everything just started when I joined Blue Rep.
What were then your interests before you got into theater?
Music, definitely. I formed a band with my friends in high school, and we played a lot of rock music.
I was very shy growing up and that’s how I came out from my shell.
I learned how to play guitar first, then got myself into a band.
I’m the guitarist and singer of this band.
I helped compose a couple of songs.
We won a couple of contests which was really cool, but that didn’t last very long because we went to different colleges.
But it was always about music for me.
Who are the friends you hang out with in college?
I was hanging out with my blockmates in my first year of college, the people I’m taking the same course with which is Management in Ateneo.
My second year turned my life around when I joined Blue Rep.
It’s just that I spent most of my time rehearsing the shows that I’d look forward to the shows more than school all the time.
Tell us about your performances.
I’ve doubled in television as well in 2014.
I did this show called “The Boston: The Kitchen Musical.” It’s the second season of the Kitchen Musical.
It’s a complete different cast and I played the character Don’t A. (Laughs).
I can’t say it without laughing. I’m the Maitre d’ who is, let’s just say he’s flamboyant, and super gay which I loved playing! I always love playing the gay roles.
I also came out in the movie, “My Rebound Girl.” It starred Alex Gonzaga.
It’s not a huge role but I did have lines, so yey! (Laughs).
I also went to Singapore for three months to do the show they called “Singapura the Musical.”
I did that from May to July 2015. I’ve also performed overseas which was really cool.
How did you get that role in the movie?
I knew it was because of theater.
The guy who contacted me, John Mark Yap, I’ve worked with him in “One Night Stand Cabaret.”
I did one show and he remembered me and then he had seen me in other shows, and he said like, “Let’s get an actor who can do this” and he thought of me and I did it.
Have you been nominated for an award?
My first nomination was for this play with Repertory Philippines in 2013 called “The Graduate.”
I was part of the cast of “Grease” that won Best Ensemble Cast.
We also won the award for like best musical of an existing material also for “Grease.”
This year I’m nominated for Best Actor in a play I did last year called “Almost, Maine.”
It’s a series of love stories written by John Cariani, and directed by Bart Guingona.
There are only four actors in the show and all four of us are nominated.
Tell us about the annual summer workshops you hold here in Cebu.
I was fortunate enough with Little Boy Productions to start teaching here in Cebu in 2009. I just finished college and
decided to teach for the
summer and I really enjoyed it. In general, it was fun because I didn’t realize how much I wanted to be a teacher until I did it. Also, I didn’t realize that I was going to learn more about myself.
Being a teacher means that you are also an eternal student. So now whenever I get the chance to teach, I will say yes to it. Well, at least for the time being.
How do you spot good acting and bad acting?
It comes with years and years of doing it, and it comes with the people you learn it from your brilliant directors.
They’d say whom they like and they don’t like, but it’s different from good or bad. Sometimes you like an actor who’s not particularly that good in someone else’s eyes but you just like them.
Good acting and bad acting, the difference is acting. What do I mean? It means bad acting is when you see acting. Good acting is when you believe whatever it is that they’re doing.
That’s it.
An example would be?
Meryl Streep. And I enjoyed watching Benedict Cumberbatch these days. “Sherlock,” yes! One of the best TV shows for me.
Bad acting would be?
I don’t want to name names but it’s the single teleserye you see at night.
You just have to cry.
The solution to everything is just cry.
It’s the worst! If you cry over and over again, it loses its effect.
I get it that your life is sad. Stop crying! (Laughs).
How long does your workshop last?
It’s usually three weeks which is different in Manila that’s usually up to two months.
That’s for the entire summer.
What I like about the format here in Cebu is that it’s just three weeks.
You get all the basic knowledge, you do a showcase, and you develop relationships, and then after that you have enough to go out of the country!
Can anyone join even if they did not attend the first week?
Definitely. The student that came in the latest joined at the start of our second week.
She missed the first week then she decided she wanted to join, so she went on the Monday of the second week, and now she’s fully immersed with her classmates.
It’s really nice to see that.
I hope to see them again next year.
Tell us a bit of where you are now in the workshop.
We have an upcoming culminating event.
It’s a show that my co-teacher and I wrote based on what they are like as students, so we based most of the characters on who they really are in real life.
It’s a compilation of songs you know in love and we put a story to it.
But it’s not a love story. It’s about what it means to be 18, a group of people working together.
There are parts in the script that I left blank. I tell them, “Do you see the blanks?
You’re going to put something there.” There’s learning how to sing in harmony.
Just do everything in harmony and feeling each other out.
Your willingness to do whatever it is you’re supposed to do even though you’re super tired.
What’s the hardest part of doing what you’re doing now?
The biggest challenge of being a teacher is making sure that you are reaching out to all your students.
Everyone has a certain way of filtering information on their own.
Everyone receives information differently.
Some of them understand it through examples, some through theories, visual, auditory, or kinaesthetic.
Most challenging thing is that everyone is able to access information from you. Your job is to make sure that you access all those modalities at the same time.
It has become a high for me. Again, acting is a conversation.
It’s a conversation between the actor and the audience.
The moment you start talking on stage, that story is something that maybe someone in the audience can relate to.
Their part of the conversation is the questions that formed in their minds during or after the performance.
That’s the communication you seen in theater. That should happen in theater, well, at least.
What happens when it gets lost in translation?
Then that’s why controversial materials exist because there are people who argue over material.
But then again, that’s the kind of art I like. Art is not meant to make you happy or sad.
It’s meant to disturb you.
It’s meant to push something in your brain.
Negative or positive, it’s meant to stir something in you and make you ask questions.
I always tell my students, crazy as it may sound but you might actually be able to change the world with it.
I always tell my students, life is perception.
If I drew a 6 on the floor and you’re on the opposite side, you’d say it’s a 9.
And we can argue ‘til the cows come home from where we’re standing, but if I actually take the time to go to your side and see how you are seeing it, then oh, you’re right. Now come to my side then I’m also right.
I always say now that I am older and wiser (laughs), I say that a lot of theater lesson can be applied in real life.
Like the most basic rule of improvisation is this thing we called Yes-And.
Whenever someone throws something at you, you agree to it.
Never say no to it. Because when you say no to it, it dies.
Your job is to say yes and then you add.
That applies to life as well especially in an argument.
The reason fights happen because no one knows how to say yes-and anymore.
It’s all no and but. This world is full of no and but.
Let’s say you want to critique someone, you say this is what I like AND I think you can improve here.
When you say b-u-t, you erased what you just said. So accept and add.
What do you like about teaching here in Cebu?
What I love doing workshops in Cebu is that Cebuanos are some of the humblest people I ever met in my life.
They’re very shy at first and then you hear them sing for the very first time and you’re like, “Who are you?!” (Laughs).
I have this student who’s been quiet the entire time and she started singing and we all dropped our jaws.
I was like, “You can sing like that? Where has that been?”
What I love about that is that they’re shy and super talented.
All of them are little surprises to me. And this town is super chill.
What could be a surprise that you got yourself to experience?
I got a call from Little Boy Productions asking if I want to sing in Araneta, and I was like, okay sure.
I rehearsed with JM Rodriguez, Nyoy Volante, Nelsito Gomez, Fred Lo, and me.
The five of us and we sang a Christmas song, “Tuloy na tuloy pa rin ang Pasko!” That was what we sang.
I knew it was a Christmas show but I did not know that number one: Ryan Cayabyab would be the one to conduct the orchestra; number two: it’s a full size orchestra in the middle of Araneta.
And number three, which blew my mind: we had a thousand-person choir behind us.
They closed off one area of Araneta Coliseum just for the choir members to sit.
I went in and I turned around, “Oh my God, I’m going to perform.”
I was just there slack-jawed, and then all of a sudden there’s this voice behind me that goes, “It’s crazy, right?”
I was like, “Yeah!”
And it’s Lea Salonga. (Laughs).
That was pretty cool.
Lea performed that night and we all performed the last number together.
So I can say that I performed with Lea Salonga! (Laughs).
What do you do if you want to take a breather?
I’d play video games. (Laughs).
And I watched movies and I need to work out.
I need endorphins.
I need it to reset my brain, and to stay healthy as well.
Do you have a video game buddy?
Yes, my girlfriend, actually.
We both play.
She’s an addict.
She actually got me to playing League of Legends, and here we are five years later, still playing the same game. (Laughs).